ISLAMABAD / LAHORE: Reposing confidence in the leadership of Nawaz Sharif, local political worker and human rights activist Jahangir Akhtar announced joining Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) on Wednesday.

Akhtar, while speaking to The Express Tribune said that he decided to join the PML-N because he has faith in Nawaz’s leadership and believes that he can take the country out of the crisis as he is the only mature politician in the country.

The human rights activist listed the reasons why he joined the PML-N which included Nawaz’s positive stance towards Pak-India friendship, his efforts for education for poor people like Danish schools and his support for the Lawyers’ Movement.

Commenting on the politics of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Akhtar said that the PPP is a party of feudal lords and not of politicians.

“One doesn’t become a politician by just being someone’s daughter, son or husband,” Akhtar said. “In my opinion, the only party that can help Pakistan is the PML-N,” he added.

When asked about his anti-corruption movement, Akhtar said that the PML-N has promised him that if the parliamentarians fail to pass the accountability bill, it will unilaterally submit it to the house.

Akhtar also announced that if the bill was not proposed within four days, he will start his hunger strike again.

The current rift between the PPP and the PML-N over the bill, according to Akhtar, is about who should head the commission.

“The PPP wants to appoint retired judge, while on the other hand the PML-N wants to appoint a serving judge,” Akhtar explained.

Earlier while addressing a press conference along with PML-N central leader Senator Zafar Ali Shah at the National Press Club (NPC), Akhtar said that the PML-N leadership played a key role in strengthening democracy and democratic institutions in the country.

Welcoming the participation of Akhtar, Senator Shah said that every political party would like to have workers like Akhtar. He pointed out that Akhtar had been working for the last 40 years for the promotion of democracy and human rights in the federal capital.

The 68 years old former army gunner has spent the better part of his life campaigning for progressive causes and reduction in the defence budget. For his trouble, he was sent to jail for a year along with 10 lashes during the military dictatorship of General Ziaul Haq.

PML-N’s Inamullah Niazi quits party

Khan Niazi announced his resignation from PML-N on Wednesday.

Addressing a press conference at Lahore Press Club with his brother Najeebullah Khan Niazi, he said, “I am raising voice against the humiliations and exploitations meted out to the senior leaders of PML-N including Javed Hashmi, Ahsan Iqbal, Tehmina Daultana and others who faced hardships during the dictatorship of Pervez Musharraf.”

He further said that Hashmi’s resignation from the party was the first drop of rain but people would see a tremor in PML-N within a few days.

Inamullah added that Imran Khan was his cousin but he was not going to join Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and he would remain a PML-N worker.

“A few PML-N workers including me, Iqbal and Hashmi faced jails and a lot of problems during the Musharraf regime and presented a decorated PML-N to our leaders but a certain group is trying to ruin the party which has already made another party within the PML-N,” he revealed.

To a question regarding the future of the PTI, he said, “I had informed Mian Nawaz Sharif about the real threat of PTI in London in 2006 but to no avail… Sharif brothers would have to see more threats in the coming weeks if they do not open their eyes.”

PTI had come to rely on land-lord cum pirs and cartel runners on seats.
Everyone should think about this!
How can PTI have a social liberty agenda if they are developing the sort
of leadership they are.

A clear contrast…Anna Hazare is not a politician & Jehangir Akhter has joined a political party…
Secondly we don’t need to idealize any Anna… Our Imran Khan is much more visionary,sincere & hard working than Anna Hazare…

@ProudPakistani: Imran is surely be better than Nawaz and Zardari but to compare him (that too favourably!) with Hazare is just ridiculous and ignorant. We can be proud Pakistanis without necessarily having to be jingoistic or anti-Indians.Recommend

Whatever this person is and is not, the real competition looks to be between PTI & PML-N now. Both appear capable and better parties among all others in Pakistan at this moment. Rest remains in the hands of Allah for us……

Its funny to read all the comments of PTI supporters, all bashing Mr. Jahangir Akhtar’s decision to join PML-N, had he joined PTI all of you hypocrites would have been praising how sincere this person is to politics and how important is he to Pakistan. PML-Q part (2) / PTI can not single handedly save this country.

He was also in PTI for some times during mushi time.
why we give senseless reasons of changing parties?
if you want to leave a party and join just join.
by the way he joined pml-n because he did get any thing from present ppp govt.

Anna Hazare and Pakistani anna hazare are bothguys are fakes as is Imran Khan. all these are megalomaniacs, think of themselves as some sort of super men among blind people. Like Anna Hazare, Imran Khan will go down as well since he will not be able to manage the loftyexpectations he has set .

Javed Akhtar is a respectable figure. He is nothing less than Anna Hazare of Pakistan. His decision to join PML-N would certainly bear fruit for PML-N. The irony of the fate is that if he had joined PTI, he would have received a lot of praise from around the corners of Pakistan. Since, he had joined PML-N, he is being virtually attacked by PTI zealots, who are a new breed of Jealas in the country. Please learn to respect difference of opinion if you are really working for Pakistan.

If he wanted to bring down corruption, he, like Anna Hazare, should have abstained from politics. Pakistani politics is so mired in corruption that you cannot beat corruption by being a regular politician. Look to what the self-declared custodian of propriety, Imran Khan, has been reduced to: he is accepting power-hungry, opportunists into his fold; and he says he is going to bring change. Pakistan needs an anti-corruption movement of the people so that a culture develops in which a political party can only be a national institution, not the property of an individual or a family. Obviously, Mr. Akhtar does not have what it takes to be Anna Hazare; he was just looking for a party ticket, and he claimed that he would fight corruption. What a corrupt way to gain publicity!
Siddique Malik, Louisville, Kentucky, USA.

@EMK:
If you want to respect him, it’s your choice. But even if he had joint PTI or any other Pakistani-made illusion of proper politics, instead of PML-N, it still would have shown that he is no Anna Hazare. Hazare is a mission-oriented social activist, while Mr. Akhtar is just a regular political opportunist ready to gain power and grab money in the name of people. Perhaps, we should ask PML-N’s Mr. Safdar how much money was given to Mr. Akhtar to convince him to join the family-owned business called PML-N, since Mr. Safdar knows the amount involved in case of Mr. Hashmi joining PTI.
Siddique Malik, Louisville, Kentucky, USA.

“One doesn’t become a politician by just being someone’s daughter, son or husband,”Akhtar said.

Really Jahangir Akhtar? Is that why you joined a party where the political party is named after its president (PML-N), a position previously occupied by Nawaz Sharif’s brother and wife. That brother is now the CM of Punjab, who has a son that is a controversial and useless MNA.

Nawaz himself tried to bring his older son (Hussain Nawaz) into politics, but that didn’t work out, and now has turned to Maryam Nawaz (his daughter) who has recently started taking an active role in pushing the bankrupt agenda of her father’s party which is itself devoid of any democracy.

I’m sure everyone can see the sense in your ‘principled stand’.Recommend

lolz …look at the so-called Anna Hazare the activist for anti-corruption, and joining the most corrupt party and leaders of Pakistan …. it is all about fame, popularity and money, such people do not even have a clue about the philosphy of these causes and obviously they are not serious about it either. Doesnt make a difference wherever he goes because he is nobody…

@BRUISED INDIAN:
You ask for proof ?
1. Whatever field he’s entered in, he’s excelled in it.
2. He hasn’t come in power, which he deserves after years of success in various fields, and honest struggle for betterment of this nation

this is right as pmln a key player of mature politics has the ability to deliver but they are not given chance to complete their democratic right each time they have won elections but any way its time to think about pakistan

//He pointed out that Akhtar had been working for the last 40 years for the promotion of democracy and human rights in the federal capital.

The 68 years old former army gunner has spent the better part of his life campaigning for progressive causes and reduction in the defence budget. For his trouble, he was sent to jail for a year along with 10 lashes during the military dictatorship of General Ziaul Haq.//

All this, did you read it??

And hunger strike for 9 days is not a stunt! Try doing it if it seems so easy.

Since when we started calling any country’s activist by the the “proper name” of an activist of another country? It would be like calling Indian Washington, American Gandhi, Indian JFK, Indian Benazir, British Nehru etc etc. Or calling suicide bombers at Muslim Kamikazes, Indian fabric and leather work as Indian “Chinese Arts”. No two person or actions have exactly same characteristics or circumstances.

@Akber:
Couldn’t agree more. PML-N is doing very well in Punjab. Taking as a whole, Punjab has much better governance than the federal government and other provinces of Pakistan. PML-N has the capacity to deliver even more.

Before this write up,Pakistani Anna Hazarey was an unknown commodity in Pakistan.However his joining Nawaz’ party would not make Nawaz a Nelson Mandela of Pakistan.Both appears fake to me since past track record shows little potential for any comparison.

Let us not kid ourselves.Our land is incapable of producing likes of Anna-Hazare.Corruption in our land is as much desired as an apple-pie in USA.We are a land rife with fake degrees and intellectual dishonesty at all levels with media that is free in the morning and frank in the evening.

First, we must understand Anna-Hazare belong to India and this Pak Activist should be called by his “Proper Name”, only then we begin to be realistic. Just by pasting a “Nike’ Logo on any Shoe don’t make the shoe a Nike brand. I believe it was Tribune’s own initiative to use that name for reference. Also we should not “rhyme” our institutions with foreign names like Hollywood, MIT or NewYork either. That only show we are a “CopyCat” and the original ideas was imported from a “foreign” country.

When you start using foreign ideas from__ China, Europe or America you really start to get “Lost” because whole picture start to change after “Few turns” due to lack of Genuine Relationship between the “Borrowed” name and the “Reality” on the ground. Beside, Indians don’t want to see their hero look like “this” guy from a more corrupt system, which results in their outrage & so bombartment of negative & misleading responses in our papers.

Thank God Pakistani didnt followed him. Otherwise we were so much disappointed on his joining PML-N.
It shows that he was a fame hungry, greedy man, When he say media is not giving him any coverage, he decided to cash his 9 day protest.